Social Customer Care Continues to Elude Brands; 3 Strategies for Improving

A new report by Simply Measured reveals that only 30% of top brands maintain an active customer service handle on Twitter.

Interestingly, the study spins this statistic as a positive sign that "more and more brands" are recognizing the value of a dedicated customer service presence on social networks. After all, the statistic last year was only 23%.

So…improvement, right?!

In reality, this figure is the latest in a long line of statistics to reveal how slowly brands are adapting to the "social era." And insofar as the largest brands have the greatest resources and therefore the greatest ability (and greatest need) to create an optimal social customer experience, the 30% figure is all-the-more disappointing.

Despite all the hype about "multi-channel" and the value of social, brands are simply not rising to the challenge. They might loudly trumpet declarations about customer-centricity, but they are not walking the talk. They are not doing what is necessary to create the experience that customers want.

As disillusioning as it is, the 30% figure actually overstates brand commitment to the social customer experience. That figure implicitly praises organizations for the mere act of setting up a customer service account on Twitter. No commentary is even offered on whether or not the brand actually delivers a customer-centric experience through that particular account.

And when one deepens his scrutiny to that level, he finds even more disillusionment. According to the Simply Measured report, only ten percent of customer service Twitter accounts responded to more than 70% of mentions. The average response rate, meanwhile, was a paltry 42%, and none broke the 75% barrier.

Granted, one might be inclined to ignore such statistics given the fact that some brand mentions neither warrant nor even anticipate a response. If so, that person can instead focus on response time, which measures how long it takes for a brand to reply to inquiries that it feels definitely warrant a response.

At an average of 5.1 hours, that figure is just as damning when it comes to the state of social customer care. While 42% of customers expect a response within an hour (and, really, why shouldn’t they—why should a response take longer on the super-convenient Twitter platform than it does on the phone?), only ten percent of customer service accounts are delivering on that expectation.

The research is not all bad, however. While only 10% of brands can maintain an average response rate of less than an hour, 61% of all customer service responses meet that criteria. According to the report, one potential culprit could be the fact that brands initially overlook certain Tweets and take days to finally realize there was an outstanding message.

If true, that still speaks to the lack of customer-centricity within the channel. Does a call center forgive itself for ignoring certain calls and then responding days later?

Reports like this one have no business in the so-called "age of the customer." How can brands—big or small—claim they are driven first and foremost by customer satisfaction if they are so notably neglecting to deliver for customers in social media?

Thirty percent of top brands have a customer service Twitter? Really? Not even 95% would be impressive—in today’s environment, the only acceptable statistic is 100%. Social customer care is not an option—it is simply a fact of life.

Here are some strategic changes brands can make in order to escape from the social customer experience abyss:

Stop treating "social customer care" as a supplement
Brands picking and choosing the channels in which they offer customer care have potentially already missed the point of multi-channel customer service.

In the "age of the customer," the customer has full control over the channel in which he chooses to engage the brand. Regardless of whether that is over-the-phone, via social media, via self-service or via live chat, if the customer wants to be there, the brand is obligated to be there.

While many label today’s service environment a "multi-channel" one, the more appropriate label is "channel agnostic." A traditional phone inquiry is not inherently more important than a social media inquiry, and as such, the brand’s commitment to response and resolution cannot differ across channels.

Social, therefore, is not an optional offering for a brand—it is part of the core service experience, and when determining investment and measuring performances, brands cannot afford to approach it as an extra credit assignment. If social inquiries are repeatedly being met with weak resolve and poor response times, the entire customer experience is fundamentally suffering.

Leverage agents across channels

Because support must be "channel agnostic," support agents must be equipped to deliver a quality experience—and meet rigid criteria for response time and resolve—in all channels.

This does not mean every agent must be a whiz in every channel—in some organizations, particularly larger ones, it probably makes sense to have specialized teams providing support in each channel.

But it does mean that a business’ workforce must be flexible enough to adapt to the reality of customer contact. If there is a huge number of social inquiries on a given day, the team must be able to meet that rise in demand—response times should not slow simply because "phone has traditionally been the business’ most important channel."

In order to create that versatility, many organizations will need to cross-train agents for competency in multiple channels.

Redefine "brand reputation"

In the early days of social, brands were told to monitor customer chatter in order to spot particularly-positive or negative conversation points. Social has evolved.

In today’s environment, the reputational element of social media also concerns how a brand engages customers in the channel. Responding slowly to a mere fraction of customer inquiries reflects very negatively on the brand’s commitment to the customer and, as such, creates a negative public perception of the brand.

Just as a history of poor call center support can damage a brand’s customer service reputation, so too can poor social support. An Aspect survey, for instance, reveals that more than 80% of customers will refuse to buy from those brands who ignore their Tweets.

If reputation management, is what got your business into social, remember that the quality of care you provide in response to a customer issue is every bit as important as customer chatter about a previous experience with your brand.

Do not simply monitor for "brand-bashing" on social networks. Also monitor the quality of care you provide—and how customers are responding to that care—to assure they leave each interaction with a glowing opinion.

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